


I Got Your Flower (Kick His Ass, Baby)

by Kybee1497



Series: trope mashup tumblr prompts [1]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: AHAHAHA, Alternate Universe - Bodyguard, Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Brief description of an injury, I clarified it did not say corpses this time, Kinda, M/M, Tumblr Prompt, a triple threat, alex is very very gay, flirting with flowers, flower language used as a trope, no I won't elaborate, okay I guess I did explain it, willex, willie is a flower himbo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 02:14:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29324541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kybee1497/pseuds/Kybee1497
Summary: So now Alex, brand new Royal Bodyguard, was standing in Pushing Daisies watching his new charge humming over a bouquet, the sunlight from the wall of windows (bad strategic design choice by the way, it was terribly hard to keep Willie safe from potential harm when the entire front of the store was floor to ceiling glass) was streaming in, lighting Willie’s hair up and making it glow.OhOh no
Relationships: Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms)
Series: trope mashup tumblr prompts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2154000
Comments: 24
Kudos: 139





	I Got Your Flower (Kick His Ass, Baby)

**Author's Note:**

> Once again from the two trope prompt on tumblr: Bodyguard AU + Flower shop AU, ft. Willex
> 
> Thank you Ceej, @sunnylemonss for the prompt
> 
> So this was supposed to be a short fic concept and 24 hours and 5k words later, here we are. Idk I have no explanation but here ya go, I guess.

Prince William Covington was not what Alex expected. 

Prince William, or Willie as he had corrected Alex with a grin, was definitely not like any assignment Alex had had before, not that he’d ever had an assignment before, but still. Willie’s shirt was cropped and tie-dyed, the shorts were cut-offs and he had the longest  ~~ prettiest ~~ hair Alex had ever seen on a man.

And also he was here, standing behind the counter in  _ Pushing Daisies _ , humming softly as he added a dahlia to the bouquet he was working on. The laptop on the counter open to a Spotify playlist titled  _ You Need to Calm Down _ , an eclectic mix of songs with the only requirements appearing to be being both chill and gay. Alex approved. 

Yes, Willie, crown prince or maybe not crown prince, who knew these days, ran a flower shop. The shop was tucked into a small shopping center between a café and a tattoo parlor, with a small bar on the other end. An interesting location to be sure but he seemed quite content. 

(Willie had named it Pushing Daisies, because he had a terrible sense of humor and it stressed Alex out to no end. Because you see, Willie had almost  _ died _ last year.)

_ He’d snuck out of the palace and away from his guards to board along the city streets. Something about the way they looked in the moonlight and the peaceful quiet, made it his favorite time. That and the rule breaking. Good princes weren’t supposed to slip their guard detail and leave the palace in the middle of the night.  _

_ He’d been gliding down the road, wind in his hair and the city lights passing by, when he’d been distracted by a patch of daisies growing in the cracks of the sidewalk. The glow of the street lights had hit them just right and it distracted Willie just enough that he hadn’t seen the way the road in front of him broke up.  _

_ The wheels of his board hit the patchy ground and sent him flying. He’d skidded, scraping his knees and palms, smacking his head off the ground.  _

_ Thankfully Willie had been wearing a helmet and only gotten a slight concussion instead of cracking his skull open.  _

(He hadn’t almost died, Alex, don’t be dramatic. It was a tiny fall, a tumble one could say. Hardly death worthy, never mind the crack in his helmet that finally retired it. It had been his favorite helmet, Julie had painted it for him. He was honestly more upset about losing the helmet than his near death experience, as Alex called it.) 

_ But it had made him think about what was important. And honestly he had no interest in being the future king. Apparently kings really weren’t allowed to go boarding in the middle of the night, it, as well as a bunch of other things Willie loved, was frowned upon, and well, that just wouldn’t work for him. He didn’t want to spend his life running a country, always being under a spotlight and an incredible amount of pressure. He wanted to be free. To move wherever life took him, to interact with people on a personal level. So no, being Crown Prince didn’t work for him.  _

_ Besides he had an obscene amount of ‘useless’ information on flowers rolling around in his brain and he wanted to be able to use that. Opening a flower shop would finally put that information to use and allow him to interact with the people in the city and help them, even if in a smaller way.  _

_ Officially he was still Crown Prince William Covington but unofficially he was done. His cousin Carrie could do it. She was born to rule a country. Now he was just Willie, and Willie had decided the incident was a sign. And so he had bought the empty shop space and Pushing Daisies was born.  _

However, as he was still officially Crown Prince William Covington, his uncle couldn’t just have him dally about with his flowers completely unguarded. It made him way too easy of a target. 

So now Alex, brand new Royal Bodyguard, was standing in  _ Pushing Daisies _ watching his new charge humming over a bouquet, the sunlight from the wall of windows (bad strategic design choice by the way, it was terribly hard to keep Willie safe from potential harm when the entire front of the store was floor to ceiling glass) was streaming in, lighting Willie’s hair up and making it glow. 

Oh

_ Oh no _

No one had told him that Crown Prince William Covington was  _ gorgeous.  _

This was… this was so inconvenient, how was he supposed to handle this? His first assignment was a flighty, flower shop owning Crown Prince and he was beautiful. What has Alex done to deserve this? His fragile little gay heart was not emotionally equipped for this. 

Willie turned as the bell above the door jingled, the door closing behind Alex as he just stood there. Willie grinned, eyes scanning Alex up and down before returning to his face, “hey man, how can I help you?”

“Um.. hi… I-I’m Alexander Mercer, Alex.” He paused clearing his throat and mentally smacking a hand to his forehead before continuing. “Your uncle assigned me as your new bodyguard since you’ve left the safety of the palace?” He didn’t mean it to come out sounding like a question but that’s where they ended up. 

Willie’s smile dimmed and he crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t need a bodyguard. I’m fine.”

Alex snorted “Dude, the entire front of your shop is windows. Someone could park across the street with a gun, take you out and be gone before anyone knew what happened. You’re still a prince and there are plenty of people willing to use that to their advantage.”

“And you're going to be able to stop a gunman across the street?” 

“I know how to do my job, and we’ll be replacing the front windows with bullet proof glass.”

Willie’s smile returned and he shrugged “I’m not getting out of a bodyguard, am I?”

“Nope” Alex rolled his lips, popping the p in the word and rocking back on his heels. 

Willie nodded, grabbing a bucket of cut flowers and walked towards him. Holding the bucket out, he smirked, “Well as long as you're here you may as well make yourself useful. You can’t just stand there and look pretty all day, you’ll distract my customers.”

Alex blinked at him for a second, flushing scarlet before clearing his throat again and taking the offered bucket. “Um, what do I do?”

“Just sort them out and trim each stem down to 12 inches, you can move them to the bucket behind the counter when you’re done.”

“Uh huh, okay”

Willie paused for a second before pulling a white camellia from the bucket and tucking it behind Alex’s ear.

“There, you fit right in. The clippers are on the top shelf on the far right over there.”

~~~~

They settled into a routine quickly, moving around each other like they’d done it for years instead of only a few months.

Willie was a bright light in the shop, whirling around gracefully. His shop quickly became popular as he created beautiful pieces. He was also quite skilled at making the bouquets mean something. Sometimes all a customer asked for was something to say _‘I value our friendship_ ’ (geranium, ivy and morning glory) or ‘I miss you’ (pink carnations, white clover and zinnia) or Alex’s personal favorite _‘I’m gay and a sincere fuck you for being such a dick bag about it’_ (tansy, red anemone, green carnation and pansy). 

_ The last one wasn’t actually for a customer. They had been talking during a quiet spell and the story of his parents' reaction when he came out had come up. Apparently they weren’t cool with having a gay son and refused to speak to him. Willie had muttered angrily to himself as Alex went on. Bustling around the store, searching for the specific flowers he was looking for.  _

_ He hadn’t ended up using those flowers. Alex’s parents weren’t familiar with flower language and it would be too subtle. Willie had paused, reaching for the Tansy before grinning darkly, abandoning the armful of flowers and starting fresh.  _

_ He grabbed a bucket, gathering Pink Floyd roses, ornamental thorn roses, thistle, baby’s breath and dusty miller flower greens. Alex was confused for a moment, did those even go together? He didn’t think he’d ever actually seen Willie use the thistles before.  _

_ Willie headed to the counter, grabbing the tissue paper from under the counter. He started with the baby’s breath and dusty miller, working a few roses in here and there. Then he added the rest of the roses, lining the outside of the bouquet and working some thistles in as well, hiding them under the rose heads. He packed it fuller then he would with a normal bouquet. Wrapping it in the tissue paper they usually line gift boxes with and tying it together with a piece of twine he dropped in a puddle first. Then he sprayed the whole bouquet down making sure it was nice and wet. _

_ He stepped back to view his masterpiece of pain and suffering and turned to Alex with a grin. “Where do your parents live again?” _

_ “Um, 20 minutes away, outer banks of the city?” _

_ “Perfect let’s go.” _

_ “Wait, what?” _

_ “Your parents are getting the bouquet from hell, let’s go hotdog.” _

_ “But… what?” _

_ “Baby’s breath dies without appearing to, the filler makes it so tightly packed that it will mold without being noticeable. The water will help speed that process along. Roses on the outside have sharp ass thorns and will be a pain to handle. The tissue paper will fall apart quickly and make a huge mess. The arrangement is so tight it will be impossible to see the inside and it will smell god awful as it molds, by the time they figure it out, the whole house will stink and the baby’s breath will turn into an odorous, flower powder bomb the second they’re moved. The bouquet from hell.” _

_ Alex was in love. This man had made a flower bomb from hell and was delivering it to his parents doorstep just because they were homophobic assholes. He had to restrain himself from proposing on the spot.  _

_ “Okay then, let’s go.” _

So it was safe to say that this was the best assignment Alex had ever had, actually scratch that, it was the only assignment he’d had but still, it couldn’t get better than this. 

He might be a little bit in love with Willie but so what, lots of people were a little bit in love with Willie, it was Willie. 

He was kind, and funny, and his smile could light up the whole room. He very obviously loved his flowers and took pride in his work. 

He also liked to give Alex little heart attacks. 

Like the time a fight between drunk bar patrons broke out in front of the shop. It had gotten messy fast and Alex was attempting to pull Willie into the back room where he wasn’t at risk of flying projectiles. Willie had shrugged out of his grasp and sauntered across to the counter, grabbing a few spare flowers from an earlier piece, dodging Alex’s hands as he tried to pull Willie back and  _ walking out the door _ . 

Alex had run after him, panicking and trying to teach him before he hit the fight. 

He didn’t make it and Willie arrived right in front of them. 

“Excuse me!! Excuse me, sir. SIR! Hi, yes here you go” 

The men had paused, mostly in shock that Willie had decided to strike up a conversation right then, and then because Willie had handed the man a flower, a white poppy. 

Turning to the second man, Willie extended a sprig of apple blossoms, grinning at the dumbfounded men before turning and making his way back inside.

Passing Alex, he squeezed his shoulder then tapped his jaw that was hanging open. Alex closed his mouth and followed Willie inside. 

It took a second for Alex to process and then 

“What the hell, Willie! Oh my god that was so dangerous, they had weapons! You could have been hurt! Oh my god you could have been hurt or killed and it would have been my fault and I would be fired and probably arrested for letting the prince die and you would have been hurt!” Alex inhaled sharply, he’d said that all in one breath and he was a bit lightheaded now, and also Willie could have died, the thought made him more than a little panicked. He’d grown attached to the flower himbo. 

“You’re wound a little tight there, hotdog. It was fine, they get in fights all the time and it usually fizzles out no big deal. A beer bottle isn’t a weapon unless it’s broken. They were still taking sips in between swings. Besides, you can’t keep fighting someone when you’ve just been handed a flower. Takes the wind right out of your sails.” 

“That doesn’t… okay.” He couldn't really argue with that. Willie was a flower himbo, flowers solved everything. Happy, flowers. Sad, flowers. Need revenge, flowers. Need to diffuse a fight, flowers. And he wasn’t exactly wrong. It had worked. Wonderfully, in fact. 

“See, it’s all good. Everything’s fine. Here have a sit down.” Willie guided Alex to a chair, snatching a dwarf sunflower and a yellow tulip and handing them to Alex where he sat on his stool. “Hey, do you want some juice?” 

“Sure. Apple?” Alex asked hopefully.

“Apple it is, one apple juice coming right up.” Willie crosses to the fridge in the back room, leaning down to rummage around for the juice.

Honestly at this point Alex didn’t even know who was taking care of who. Willie kind of just did whatever he wanted and then got Alex a juice when he stressed out, yelling about safety and threats to the crown. Maybe Alex wasn’t cut out to be a bodyguard. All he did was help Willie with the flower arrangements and be gay. Which did not a bodyguard make. 

Should he even still be Willie’s bodyguard if he wasn’t doing a good job of keeping Willie out of danger? Nothing had happened but he didn’t want to wait and put Willie at risk. That would be irresponsible of him, reckless, dangerous. He didn’t want to put Willie at risk just because Alex was lowkey in love with him and didn’t want to stop being his bodyguard. 

He wasn’t even sure if anyone else would actually be able to make Willie listen to them and stay safe. Was Alex just supposed to pick Willie up and move him to a safe place if this happened again? There wasn’t any training for what to do if your assignment tried to diffuse a drunken fight with flowers.

But Alex did know a few things. First, he liked being here, working in the shop, and being around Willie all day. Second, Willie had a knack, nay a talent for escaping dangerous situations completely unscathed with nothing to show for it except for Alex back on the stool with a juice in his hand. And third? Alex was hopelessly and completely in love with Willie. 

Great

~~~~

The few weeks after his realization didn’t go that much different besides Alex’s daily moments of ‘oh shit, I love this man.’ and ‘oh no, he’s so pretty.”

The latest being when Willie had left with Carrie over lunch, disappearing into the little courtyard behind the store. It was tucked in and hidden, with high walls and so Alex was reasonably comfortable hanging out in the back while they had a good lunch. 

Willie had come back in, sleeves of his sweatshirt pulled down over his hands and Alex froze. 

Carrie must have been playing with Willie’s hair while they talked because it was braided back, emphasizing his cheek bones, with little blue and purple flowers woven through it, heliotrope and lilac. His cheeks were flushed from the cool air and his eyes were bright, sparkling as he grinned at Alex from the doorway. Alex felt his heart stop for a moment, breath catching, before it started back up, beating faster. 

_ Oh _

He was so gone. Willie had worked his way into Alex’s heart without him realizing and he was powerless to stop it now. He just didn’t know what to do about it. Dating assignments was… frowned upon, especially when your assignment was still technically the crown prince. Dear god, it was Alex’s first job and he’d fallen in love with the man. How gay of him, to fall in love with the first pretty man he worked with. Honestly it should be embarrassing but Willie was like, like a Disney prince. How could Alex not have fallen in love with Willie. That would be a crime in and of itself, not falling in love with Willie, psh, bullshit. He’d like to see someone else try. 

Actually no, he very much would not like to see someone else try. If he had to watch someone else be in love with Willie he might cry. 

Apparently some of his dilemma must have been visible on his face because Willie reached over the counter and handed him a red chrysanthemum. Willie’s face was soft as he smiled at Alex gently. There was an odd look in his eyes, and Alex paused before reaching out to take the flower from Willie. Twirling the stem gently between his fingers, he looked back up, eyes meeting Willies. Willie slowly reached out, giving Alex time to lean back if he wanted, before using his pinky to brush the hair that had fallen over his eyes, back out of his face. 

Alex’s breath caught again, eyes searching Willie’s. The air was filled with an odd tension and Alex leaned forward a bit, drawn towards Willie. 

The bell over the door tinkled as the door was pushed open, snapping the tension in the air and Alex pulled back quickly almost falling off his stool. Willie’s face cleared and he turned with a smile, greeting the customer who had entered. Checking that nothing was out of place, Alex busied himself with cleaning off the counter and work space.

~~~~

Willie’s random gifts of flowers continue, more and more frequently and always somehow when Alex wasn’t expecting it. 

Purple stock one morning, passed over with a quick squeeze of Willie’s fingers. 

A bouquet of tulips after they closed on Friday night. 

And then one day Carrie was coming to meet Willie for lunch again. It had been a normal day, a little busy, but nothing out of the ordinary. 

They were preparing to close for lunch and Willie had paused looking at the forget-me-nots for a moment before grabbing a cluster and turning back to Alex, hesitating for a brief moment before gently tucking it behind Alex’s ear. 

Clearing his throat, Willie smiled, scanning Alex’s face “Matches your eyes”.

Alex flushed, pink crawling across his cheeks and spreading down his neck. 

Just then the bell chimed as Carrie pushed the door open, calling out before she’d even fully entered the store. 

“Hey Willie, want to check out that new Thai place? I heard their new pineapple fried rice is to die for. We could even get it delivered so your little friend here doesn’t stress out. I don’t need another lecture on “safety”and “appropriate risks''. I could call- oh”

Carrie finally looked up, taking in the scene in front of her. Eyes going from Willie to Alex, to Willie’s hand still near Alex’s face, to Alex’s pink cheeks and finally to the flower in Alex’s hair. Her eyes widening before snapping back to Willie. They had a silent conversation, micro-expressions changing rapidly. Willie sighed stepping back and shoving his hands into his pockets. “Sounds great Care, you know what I get right?” 

She snorted “please, you’re nothing if not predictable.”

“Uh huh, thank you Carrie”

“Mm hmm” she flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder and pulled her phone out. Looking for the number briefly, she put the phone to her ear and turned looking out the window. 

While they waited for the food, they finished cleaning up from the light rush they’d had earlier. Throwing out abandoned leaves and stems and wiping down counters. 

Lunch arrived quickly though and Carrie met the delivery driver at the door, handing the food off to Willie and sending him to get settled in the courtyard. 

She faced Alex, eyeing the flower in his hair meaningfully. “Is he teaching you what those mean?”

“Some, but I don’t know a lot” Alex was confused, Willie was just giving Alex the leftovers right, the ones they couldn’t use?

Carrie sighed, rolling her eyes. “Of course, he wouldn’t think to actually explain that part. Boys!”

Straightening up she moved to Alex’s side, patting his shoulder, “look it up honey, trust me”

With that last cryptic remark she strode towards the courtyard, muttering under her breath about stupid boys and their stupid flowers and inability to actually communicate. 

What the fuck?

Alex was confused but Carrie seemed to think there was a point to this whole thing and Carrie usually knew what she was talking about, so, to google he went. 

Pulling his phone out of his back pocket he pulled up the list he’d made. Yes, he had made a list of every flower Willie ever gave him, what about it? Anyways, he’d wanted to see if there were any repeats, but there never were so he just assumed it was random. 

As he began pulling up a chart of various flower meanings, Alex’s breath caught in his chest. Fingers shaking as he quickly pulled up different articles, the information didn’t change. Oh… wow.

How could Alex have thought it was random? Every single gift Willie had given him had had a meaning, a purpose. Even back to the first day, Willie had known what he was doing. Had been pouring his heart out through flower language and Alex had completely missed it. How could he have missed it? Willie spent enough time complaining that no one appreciated flower languages anymore. Alex had been making an effort to ask about the reasoning behind each flower Willie included in his bouquets. Willie lit up every time, going off on a tiny rant about colors and flower placement, while Alex tried not to stare too obviously. Seriously how had he managed to miss… this? Willie hadn’t been subtle, he’d been quite clear in fact. 

That first day when Alex had been tongue tied and blushing and Willie had smiled and tucked a flower behind his ear.  _ White camellia _ ,  _ I think you’re adorable. _

The aftermath of the flower fight when Alex had been anxious and ranting about safety procedures and “damn it Willie, don’t get in between two guys who are going at it in the parking lot!”  _ Dwarf sunflowers and peach roses, adoration and gratitude or sincerity . _

The flowers braided into Willie’s hair after his last lunch with Carrie. _ Heliotrope and lilac, eternal love or devotion, and first love or faithfulness.  _

The flower he had handed to Alex after coming in from lunch and the following moment before an arriving customer had cut it short.  _ Red chrysanthemum, I love you.  _

_ Purple stock, you’ll always be beautiful to me. _

_ Red and Yellow tulips, “my feelings are true” and sunshine in your smile _

_ The forget-me-nots from earlier, faithfulness and love, don’t forget me _

Oh

Willie… loved him? And Alex had spent the last few months having gay crisis after gay crisis in between being anxious about his job. Poor Willie. He could fix this. He could totally fix this. 

Alex checked his watch, his google bender had only taken about 25 minutes and so he still had 35 minutes left before he could expect them back. Time was tight, but if he hurried it would be done by the time they were. 

Plan in place, Alex stood up and hurried to the first bucket he needed.

~~~~

Willie was laughing when he and Carrie came in the back door a little over thirty minutes later. Alex had just put the final touches on his masterpiece and was standing with it by the counter. 

Carrie shoved Willie lightly as they made their way to the front of the shop and he looked up smiling, a soft look appearing on his face when he spotted Alex. He started to say something and froze when his eyes finally landed on the object Alex was holding nervously. 

The flower crown was big, hastily made and a little sloppy from lack of experience. He normally just handed Willie what he asked for when he made them. Flowers were Willie’s love language though and Alex wanted to get it right, going back and forth between different lists to make sure he had the meanings right. The crown was almost all pink, Alex had a brand after all.  _ Longing for you.  _ The pink camellia was larger, circular with many petals, similar to a peony.  _ Happiness _ . The pink roses were a more classic choice but they fit just as well.  _ Love and patience.  _ Interspersed between the two were a darker pink aster, small flowers similar to daisies with straighter petals.  _ Sincerity and a secret love. _ Small curls of fern appeared throughout and the whole thing was woven together with a copper wire that would blend with Willie’s hair beautifully

Willie looked from the crown, to Alex, searching his eyes, before looking back to the crown. 

“Is that for me?” Willie’s voice was soft, hesitant and he brought his arms up. Rubbing his thumb over his left arm. 

“Yeah, yes it’s for you. If that’s okay?” Alex nodded. Was Willie not okay with this? Had Alex misunderstood? He’d been so sure. 

Willie crossed the room to stand right in front of him, lowering his head a bit and Alex rushed to place the crown on Willie’s head. It was a little lopsided, an aster threatening to slip free, but Willie grinned, taking Alex’s hands in his gently, thumbs brushing his knuckles. 

“Did you-Did you pick those flowers on purpose?” Willie looked shy as he asked the question, blushing slightly and Alex squeezed his hands. 

  
“Yeah, I googled the symbolism and everything. Wanted to make sure I got it right. Why didn’t you ever tell me what the flowers meant? The ones you gave me?” Alex held his breath, not sure if he should have asked.

“I thought you knew, I just thought you didn’t feel the same way and I was stupidly pining.”

Alex rushed to speak up, “Me too, thinking I was pining I mean. I was having a whole crisis over being in love with you and being terrible at my job.”

Willie laughed “So we’ve both been uselessly pining and we could have been together this whole time. Very gay of us.” He reached up, cradling Alex’s face gently in his hands. He paused giving Alex the opportunity to move back if he wanted to, before leaning in and pressing their lips together. 

Willie’s lips were warm, soft and Alex melted into the contact, hands falling to Willie’s waist. It was perfect, well until the exasperated  _ Finally _ pulled them apart. 

Carrie stood in the doorway, arms crossed and a fake pout on her face. “I swear to god if I had to listen to Willie wax poetic about your eyes, and angst over his not so unrequited love one more time, I was locking you both in a room myself and not letting you out until you’d talked about” She gestured at them vaguely “this”. 

Willie kissed Alex’s cheek and stepped back grinning. “ _ Thank _ you Carrie, it was lovely to see you. Please leave now.” 

Carrie scoffed, tossing her hair over her shoulder and propping a hand up on her hip. “Some thanks I get. Who do you think told him to look up what the flowers you gave him meant? Nobody actually knows the flower language anymore Willie. I told you that was a terrible plan.” 

“Thank you Carrie, goodbye.” Willie’s long suffering sigh had Alex burying his face into Willie's shoulder with a grin. 

“Yeah , yeah, I’m going” She grabbed her purse and made her way to the front door, turning once she reached it and smiling softly. “I’m happy for you, you know. You deserve to be happy Willie.”

“I love you too, Carrie.” Willie’s tone was actually sincere this time, voice warm.

“Bye now, make good choices!” Carrie threw a hand over her shoulder in farewell and with a tinkle of the bell she was gone. 

Willie snickered, turning in Alex’s arms so they were facing each other again. “Wanna have dinner tonight?” 

~~~~

Dinner had been lovely that night, they’d talked for hours, getting to know each other in a way they hadn’t been able to before. Alex had been struggling to maintain some sort of professional boundary though he hadn’t been very successful. 

And on that note, he had resigned as Willie’s bodyguard. He’d much rather be Willie’s boyfriend, than bodyguard, and the powers that be weren’t overly fond of bodyguard/Prince relationships. Even if Willie was going through the process of stepping down.

Willie’s new bodyguard, Christopher, was delightful. A little too heterosexual but he supposed that wasn’t a crime, just an interesting choice. 

Like they had after their first meeting, they fell into their new normal perfectly. Alex still worked with Willie at the flower shop, he just took more of an active role now. Willie was teaching him flower symbolism and Alex loved it. They had gotten busier in the last few months and the shop was usually bustling. Alex didn’t have as much time to just watch Willie in his element as he used to, but getting to hold hands and exchange quick kisses during slow moments when the show was empty, more than made up for it. 

Willie had finally been able to officially step down from his role as crown prince and devote his full energy to  _ Pushing Daisies _ . Uncle Caleb hadn’t been happy about it but he could get over himself for all Willie cared. 

He had his shop, he had Alex, and he was happy. 


End file.
